It is known to package generally block-shaped products, including food products such as chocolate bars and other snack type confectionery products, in a wrapper that is fabricated from a substantially gas and moisture impervious material, such as a metal foil, or a plastics material (including a laminate of either or both materials), in order to protect the product.
Such known wrappers may be formed from a length of flat, foldable material having an inner surface directed to the food product and an outer surface. The outer surface may be printed on or otherwise be provided with information for the consumer. The material is folded about the product and the longitudinal side edges are bonded together to form a longitudinal sealed seam, sometimes referred to as a “fin seal” or “fin seam”. The material extends beyond the ends of the product and opposing edge regions at either end of the wrapper are bonded together to form transverse end seams. The seams may be formed using an adhesive to bond the opposing surfaces of the wrapper or by heating the material under pressure so that the opposing surfaces melt and fuse together to form a welded seam.
Packaging of this nature can be produced using a flow-wrap method in which a film of material is supplied in a roll to package a number of products in a substantially continuous process. The material is fed through a machine which folds it about each product in turn so that opposing side edges are brought into contact and bonded together to form the longitudinal seam, which usually extends along a rear face of the product. The material is crimped at either end of the product to form the end seams and the material is cut to separate each package from the remainder of the film. Alternatively, packaging may also be formed by envelope or sheet feeding and sealing is effected by means of pressure and/or heat.
The known packaging forms a fully sealed container for the product, which is substantially gas and moisture impervious. However, the material used to form such packages is typically quite tough it can be difficult to open as it does not easily tear in a controlled fashion, often requiring multiple tears to get the product out of the wrapper.
Furthermore, the known packaging is not re-closable once opened. This limits the shelf life of the product after opening and allows spillage of the remaining contents. Many larger chocolate bars are divided into portions with the intention that a consumer will break off one or more portions at a time and keep the reminder for later use. Typically, a consumer has to push the remaining bar back into the wrapper after a portion has been removed and fold the open end of the wrapper over. When the consumer wishes to break off some more of the bar, the wrapper has to be unfolded and the remaining bar pushed back out. This can be a cumbersome procedure and does not ensure the remaining contents are kept secure. This arrangement can also be rather messy for the consumer as small parts of the bar may break-off but are not securely retained in the wrapper when it is folded over.
In order to make this type of packaging easier to open, it has been proposed in GB 1, 107, 200 A to use a peelable and re-sealable adhesive coating to form the longitudinal seam and to provide folded tabs that can be grasped by a consumer and pulled apart to peel open the longitudinal seam. This arrangement helps in making the packaging easier to open and enables the packaging to be reclosed after opening. However, it has been found that the packaging is not wholly effective in securely retaining the remaining contents as it relies on the re-sealable coating to hold the longitudinal seam together. This is a particular problem with packaging for larger portioned bars which may be opened and re-sealed a number of times, as the resealable coating tends to become less effective with continued opening over time compromising the integrity of the packaging.
Other known types of packaging for generally blocked shaped products are formed from one or more sheets of flexible material. In one such known arrangement, a sheet of flexible material is folded about the product along one edge and opposing portions of the sheet are bonded or welded together along the other three edges to enclose the product. A further known form of flexible packaging comprises two sheets of flexible material positioned one on either side of the product and bonded/welded together along all four edges to form a sealed package. Where the material used to form the packages is a metal foil, laminate or other tough material, these can suffer from similar problems in terms of being difficult to open and not being re-closable.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved packaging for a generally block-shaped product which overcomes or at least mitigates some or all of the above problems.
It is a further object of the invention to provide improved methods of packaging a generally block-shaped product which overcomes or at least mitigates some or all of the above problems.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a combination of a substantially rigid, generally block-shaped product and a flexible wrapper encasing the product which overcomes or at least mitigates some or all of the problems of the prior art.